friends-
so my bud niko t. just launched www.darrenaronofsky.com. i am abandoning myspace, go to the blog, sign the guestbook, listen to the FOUNTAIN COMMENTARY.

let me know what you think,
dsa

today was the annual mermaid parade in coney island.

i grew up a few miles away and i have attended almost every one since it was re-started some 15-20 years ago.

i've watched it grow from a time when there were more people in the parade than watching it to the madhouse it was today. there were thousands of folks there and it's wonderful to know that nyc still has plenty of legitimate freaks.

it was inspiring.

watched the sun set over the parachute jump, face sunstroked, and now i can't wait to crash. sleep soon.

got a new project. passion grows. standby.
dsa

today was the annual mermaid parade in coney island.

i grew up a few miles away and i have attended almost every one since it was re-started some 15-20 years ago.

i've watched it grow from a time when there were more people in the parade than watching it to the madhouse it was today. there were thousands of folks there and it's wonderful to know that nyc still has plenty of legitimate freaks.

it was inspiring.

watched the sun set over the parachute jump, face sunstroked, and now i can't wait to crash. sleep soon.

got a new project. passion grows. standby.
dsa

alas i rest. did some good writing this week.
i'll tell you, it's real hard at times.
especially at the start.
until you surrender to the fact that this is what you are gonna do.
then, you just sit down and you do it.

it's gotten easier over the years,
but it's still tough.

gonna sleep for awhile now. good night.


dsa

so the dvd came out.
happy that it is in the world.
hope more folks will get to see it.

as many of you can tell it is light on the extras as compared to my previous dvd releases.

everything at the studio was a struggle.
for instance: they didn't want to do a commentary track cause they felt that it wouldn't help sales.
i didn't have it in me to fight anymore.
whatever.

so:
niko, my friend who did the doc on the dvd came up with a novel idea.
we recorded a commentary track ourselves.
we're gonna post it on a site soon, http coming soon.
you can play it and watch the flick and hopefully you'll enjoy it.

i do hope to do a big special edition at some point. but for that to happen the dvd is gonna have to sell.
i got a lot of extras in my bag so who know maybe if you all write to criterion they'll get interested (suggest the fountain as a title: mulvaney@criterion.com).

they've been into pi and requiem but because the first run of dvd's had so many extras they didn't know what else they could add. but the fountain...

i hope you are all well. i've been writing. stuff is coming. gonna know what we are doing next soon enough.

best,
da

In Beograde for May Day. It's the middle of the night here, 2am, and still got a taste of the jet lag. Writing is going well. That's why I am sad I have to leave on thursday for nyc. Although I welcome home, I'm in a rhythm right now and I hate to break it.

I went to a great local joint the other night called the Black Panther. It's a dingy shack built on stilts in the middle of a lake. You gotta cross a tiny planked walkway to get inside. Live music starts at 2am and goes till the sun comes up. Keyboards, snare drum, stand up bass, accordion, everyone standing on benches singing along. Really great scene. A lot more groove for this place. Gonna be sad to go.

Just read about Bush's veto. Hmmm. I remember when it was tabboo to compare this war to Vietnam. Just feels like history is repeating itself, no?
I hooked up with my friend Pax in Sinaia Romania. We had a great night in Bucharest and were cared for by some Turkish pals he met on the flight.
Anyway the reason I bring up Pax is he was telling me about a friend of his who shoots for the NY Times out of Istanbul. She did a story on these hospital planes that evacuate wounded soldiers out of Iraq as quick as possible. I imagine and hope that the major reason for this is to get them the best help they can get. But a sad side result of this is those kids who pass away once they get out of Iraq are not counted in the official "count" of soldiers who died in Iraq. Since they didn't die there then they don't make that list. If this is true, it's kinda fucked, no? Curious if anyone knows anything about this?

Best,
DA

i am in a small resort town on the black sea. being april, no one is here. i don't think the season starts till may. so i have a huge former soviet hotel for myself. but what to do? i guess sit in a room with fumes from disinffectants and write. off to a place called sinaia in a few days. it's a small town in the mountains a few hours from here. supposedly someone ancient leader brought a piece of mt. sinai to this town and now it's a big pilgramage site. to be seen. we shall see.

strange watching the sad events from virginia here in the eastern block. i heard a lot of students couldn't get into the memorial because of bush's security. that's crap. also, they're reporting over here that there are over 200,000,000 guns in the U.S. something like a third of all guns on the planet are in the states. strange.

here's another thing to think about it. it might be completely obvious, but it took me awhile to realize it. handguns are designed to shoot one thing. humans. as i said i guess that's obvious, but just think about that for a second. that entire industry is about shooting each other. ok, i can understand a rifle, maybe even a shot gun but what the fuck are we doing spending our time and money on designing weapons to kill each other. and why are they legal again. in case we need to overthrow the government? if only that was a reality. most of what our founding fathers wrote they got right. freedom of press, etc. but this archaic concept just dosen't work anymore. too many kids are having too easy a time killing each other.

i guess it's time we all just get sick of this shit and try to change it. we got the possibility right now in time to talk to anyone on the planet. anyone can be a friend. anyone can supply information. we all know now that we've pretty much screwed up the planet. entire ecosystems are dying. this new thing about the bees disappearing (damn terrifying). what the fuck are we still killing each other for?

it's time to start fixing shit. what do you think?

hello friends. off to prague next week to do some writing.

been writing quite a bit. don't believe any of the hype of anything you've heard about future projects. i am about to commit to something and i'll let you all know what it is when it happens.

dvd... i saw that terrible art and i worked hard to get it changed. the studio wouldn't hire dan and jeremy, my vfx team, to do it but i got them to use the art from the international campaign which is pretty nice.

it's a very stripped down dvd and i do hope at some point to make a definitive collector's edition but that will be in a few years.

otherwise nyc is gray and sad. i can't wait for spring to fully arrive. any moment now, we are all being teased.

anyone have any recommendations for good food, good shops, good flea marketing in prague?

best,
dsa

hey, saw fincher's new film last night. best thing i've seen in a long time.
it is a tremendous freakin' film.
make sure you go out and support it.

tonight i am seeing 300. excited about that one as well.

i am leaving for belgrade this weekend. anyone live there?

da

hello all-

how you all doing? i've been all right. doing a lot of writing, a bunch of reading, and a full time attempt at living.

went to rio for carnival. now that is really worth a trip. just true insanity. a beautiful testament to what people can do if they're not off killing each other.

concerning some dvd questions:
1. I do believe there is going to be an HD-DVD, and because it has more storage space it will have some additional extra things.
2. To be clear, there is no pre-pg-13 cut. The cut that was in the cinema was MY FINAL CUT. I made all the decisions on it (with my team of course) but creatively it was the filmmaker's vision. This is the same cut you will all see on DVD and the HD-DVD. What happened is this: originally we were given an R rating. I went back to the MPAA and with a little negotiating the film got a PG-13 rating. This was the rating I had always wanted for the film and so I made an effort to get it. But the film was in no way creatively effected. So to be clear, there was NO studio pressure it was purely my choice to try to get a PG-13 rating. Many teenagers were writing asking for me to help them out. So what you saw in the cinema and what you will see at home is the DIRECTOR'S FINAL CUT.

Thanks for listening to that rant, just wanted to make things clear.

As far as the next film. Stand by, we are close...